Crime rate topics dominate LCC meeting

Crime awareness and prevention and Assembly Bill 109 were topics of discussion at a League of California Cities’ Mountain Division meeting in Hesperia last week.

By Jack Barnwelljbarnwell@ridgecrestca.com

Crime awareness and prevention and Assembly Bill 109 were topics of discussion at a League of California Cities’ Mountain Division meeting in Hesperia last week.Vice Mayor Jerry Taylor represented Ridgecrest during the session.“Besides sharing of information of like problems, we are also a united front in dealing with the state on issues like new legislation as well as new policies like Department of Finance interpretation on RDA projects,” Taylor said. “There is strength in numbers.”“We discussed issues with the state, including the impact on cities and counties by AB 109,” Taylor said Monday in an email. “The crime rate across the state is rising.”Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 109 into law in 2011 as a way to solve overcrowding in California’s prisons. The bill shifted the responsibility for handling low-level and low-risk inmates into local and county jurisdiction. Taylor said the discussion on crime was important, as it was becoming an increasing strain on communities statewide.“Measure L is an important tool in the near term,” Taylor said. “We are in the process of hiring two new officers to deal with the increase in crime.”Taylor said that Ridgecrest’s crime rate was up 9 percent from last year, but lower overall than in previous years.“It is still lower that several years ago because last year was one of the lowest in good while,” Taylor said.The conference also held a meeting and discussion on the growing statewide problem involving “bath salts” and other synthetic drugs.“It very good information, including sharing existing citys’ ordinances to deal with this growing problem,” Taylor said. “The one sample ordinance deals more with the type of product rather than the specific chemical makeup.”Bath salts are a synthetic drug that produce hallucinogenic similar to LSD effects when used. Its use has steadily increased in California over the last year. While selling it is a misdemeanor crime, possessing it is not, leaving the state to scramble for a way to combat the rise of the drug’s use.Nationwide, there were 6,138 reports associated with bath salts in 2011, according a report from the American Association of Poison Control Centers. This was up from 304 cases in 2010.So far, the drug’s intrusion into Ridgecrest has been minimal, according to the Ridgecrest Police Department. One incident was reported last month, involving a man from the Bakersfield area.Associations and organizations, such as the LCC and other entities, constantly discuss new ways to combat such problems.“I am also thinking of bringing forward a possible a new ordinance to deal with the synthetic drug issue based on input from the police chief and the city attorney,” Taylor said.